Publication: Impact of contact lens wear on NLRP3 gene expression: Implications for ocular frailty in middle-aged adults
Loading...
Official URL
Full text at PDC
Publication Date
2020-11-13
Advisors (or tutors)
Editors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Elsevier
Citations
Exportar
Abstract
The inflammatory process plays a crucial role in frailty syndrome, which can appear in middle age and is associated with a poor health outcome. Consequently, gerontologists recommend screening inflammatory biomarkers in middle-aged adults to detect frailty and, therefore, prevent chronic diseases and mortality. External factors could be a risk factor for frailty because they can generate and extend the inflammatory process. For these reasons, we analysed the effect of long-term contact lens wear on mRNA level of genes linked to inflammation (IL-6, NLRP3, NK1R, CD73, MUC16 and TRPV1 genes) in conjunctival cells of middle-aged individuals, by quantitative PCR. Middle-aged contact lens wearers presented a significant increase of NLRP3 and MUC16 mRNA level as well as a decrease of CD73 mRNA level, in comparison with non-contact lens wearers. Additionally, we checked for a potential correlation between these transcript levels and clinical changes of the participants’ ocular surface. Unlike molecular analysis, clinical examination fails to detect inflammation in contact lens wearers. These data suggest that long-term contact lens wear could trigger an inflammatory response in middle age orchestrated by NLRP3 inflammasome and modulated by CD73 and MUC16 proteins. Further studies are needed to confirm our gene expression findings at the protein level as well as to investigate the potential role of long-term CL wear in the onset of ocular frailty.
Description
Received 11 April 2020, Revised 15 October 2020, Accepted 9 November 2020, Available online 13 November 2020.